Do We Really Need A Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?

The ballots have been counted and it’s been announced that this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees will be Nirvana, KISS, Hall & Oats, Peter Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens. While it’s hard to argue with the quality of work of these fine artists (they’re all well deserving of recognition), I still keep coming back to the same question - Do we really need a rock and roll hall of fame?

For one thing, the merits of the arts are nearly impossible to quantify. Many a movie, television show, album or piece of artwork that does big sales numbers may not have what’s widely believed to be much in the way of artistic merit, but then again, who’s to say? As the proverb goes, “One man’s treasure is another man’s trash.” What I might see as art might have you shouting it down as crass hackmanship, or vice versa. And when it comes to affecting the art of others, what influences you might have absolutely no effect on me.

So if you can’t quantify it or judge it by the moving target of influence, how about longevity? Here again, just because you’ve managed to survive in the business for 25 years (as is the requirement of all Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees) doesn’t necessarily mean that you were great, only good enough to survive. You may wind up being an influence based on a volume of work and the fact that you’ve grown or maintained your visibility over time, but does that qualify someone for any kind of hall of fame?

Actually hall of fames in general are fraught with problems and all are filled with controversy. Perhaps sports is best equipped to handle a hall of fame since induction can be based on performance statistics. In baseball, for instance, if a pitcher has 300 wins or a batter has 500 home runs in his career, his entrance into the Baseball Hall of Fame used to be automatic before the steroid era skewed the numbers. Can you do the same with music? Not as easily. Read more on Forbes.

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Peter Gabriel Crowdsources A New "Sledgehammer"

I'm not sure why crowdsourcing isn't used more. There are so many talented people in the world, and if they're a fan, they're willing to do almost anything to help an artist. Peter Gabriel, who has always tried to stay on the cutting edge, is now giving crowdsourcing a shot by asking his fans for help in remaking his big hit "Sledgehammer" for it's 25th anniversary and the reissue of the So album.

Like with most video and film crowdsourcing projects, he's asking the fan to just pick a single scene to animate, and the best will be picked from the entries by both Peter and the fans via posts on YouTube. The song will eventually be released in 3 different versions, and the winner of the best clip submission will receive a TDK wireless boombox autographed by Peter, while the runner-ups will receive posters (I think they're being a little light on the prizes myself).

"Sledgehammer" was one of the most played clips ever on MTV since 1986 when it came out, mostly because it was pretty cutting-edge for it's time. It should be interesting to see how creative the fans are this time around. Here's the original video below.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.